Agent-based modeling of farming behavior: A case study for milk quota abolishment

Abstract

Gaining insight on the effect of policies upon the Agricultural domain is essential to effectively regulate such a sector. A variety of models have therefore been developed that enable a prediction of agricultural development under different policies. Most models do however not make predictions on a fine grained level, making it difficult to see the real effect for individual farmers. This paper presents an agent-based model where each farm is modeled by means of an agent and studies the effect of milk quota abolishment. Simulations are performed for the Netherlands and compared with the predictions of more coarse grained models.